How Can I Grow My HR Career and Find Inspirational Books to Stay Motivated?

Hi all,

I am a person who has a great passion for HR, but I hardly know what to do in order to enhance my career. Right now, I am working as a Team Leader in recruitments. I have placed 10 candidates within 5 months. I really want to learn every aspect of HR. How should I go about it? I also love to read inspirational books which I believe greatly motivate me. Please let me know if there are any such inspirational books! :)

Dear Nisha,

Your enthusiasm seems to be quite infectious. You must have read a few of the articles by visiting the amazingly useful links Raghav has sent by now. However, in my opinion, I deem it important for you to be practically exposed to a few areas of HR apart from Recruitment. This would further give a more focused direction to your passion for the stream. There are the more conventional areas like Performance Management, Talent Management, or Training, Employee Relations; and the more recent areas like Strategic Management, HR Audit, etc. This would be possible if you would spend some time in a Generalist profile. It may also be possible in your current role by talking to your clients and understanding in-depth about the profile every time there is an HR requirement. Talk to your mentors in the corporate world.

You seem to be past the initial stages of your career. There is no hurry, take a little more time and think about the different KRA in each profile, vis-a-vis your strengths. I wish to think this would give you some food for thought.

All the Best!

Hello, I am Praveen. It has been good to know a person like you. Regarding the books which you had referred to on the site, rather than reading the books on new and old Western management in HR, please go through all the epics and the ancient stories. It will give you a nice input and good knowledge on practices of HR and management. Please do that, and do not pay attention to all the nonsense which the 20th and 21st centuries have said; it helps only in knowing, not doing.

From Praveen Kumar Valbooj

Hi All,

Thank you all for your appreciation (Sushma, Ashwini, Ancy, Indrani, Saran, Ramzan Sheikh, Ankita Bhavsar, Murali, Ritu, Pinkii, Debabrata Pattanayak, Anuranjan, Nisakar). I am happy that the post was helpful to so many people. For any information you may require, please use the "Downloads Search" tab at the top of this page in the future. Wish you all the very best in your career.

Regards,
Raghav V

Hi Nisha,

Please quickly move into the HR Generalist role as you will be involved in people issues, compensation, performance, job satisfaction, etc., at all levels.

Thanks,
Manoj Elanjickal

Hello Manoj,

I wanted to jump into an HR generalist role but don't know where I will get such an opening. I have 1.5 years of experience, but my post-qualification experience is just 6 months, and that too in recruitment.

Hi!

Here are a few inspirational books for HR/Gen Mgt/Anybody:

LEADERSHIP
- 'Winning' by Jack Welch
- 'Magic of Thinking Big' by David Schwartz
- 'One Minute Manager' by Spencer Johnson

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
- 'First Things First' and '7 Habits...' by Stephen Covey

Riyaz

Hi Nisha!

You may find the following books useful:

- THE MONK WHO SOLD HIS FERRARI - BY ROBIN SHARMA - JAICO BOOKS Some other books by the same author such as MEGA LIVING, THE GREATNESS GUIDE, WHO WILL CRY WHEN YOU DIE are also inspiring.

- LIGHT THE FIRE IN YOUR HEART - BY DEBASHIS CHATTERJEE - FULL CIRCLE PUBLISHING

- YOU CAN WIN - BY SHIV KHERA - MACMILLAN

- THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE - BY STEPHEN COVEY

- THE MAGIC OF THINKING BIG - BY DAVID SCHWARTZ - POCKET BOOKS

- THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING - BY NORMAN VINCENT PEALE - VERMILION PUBLICATION

- STAYING UP, UP, UP IN A DOWN DOWN WORLD - BY ZIG ZIGLAR - MAGNA PUBLISHING CO

- THE LAW OF SUCCESS - BY NAPOLEON HILL - MASTER MIND BOOKS

- THE ALCHEMIST - PAULO COELHO - HARPER COLLINS PUBLISHERS INDIA

This much for the time being. More later.

Ashok

Hi,

Now you are on the same track which I followed. I started my career in a consulting firm, then moved on to a mid-size company, and now I am in a corporate setting. I think it's a step-by-step process; only then you come to know the various tasks and how to do them. In fact, I also like reading inspirational and motivational books. Your approach could be different as well, which varies from person to person. So, you can justify wherever you go for the interview by saying that you wanted to gain exposure to other functions of HR as well, now that you have had enough experience in recruitment.

Regards,
Amit

Hi, I am Chandu. I am also working in the same field as you, in an IT firm. However, you are handling only recruitment and not doing it very well; you have only closed ten in five months. Your willingness to learn HR activities is very good, but to learn those functions, first observe what is actually happening in your organization - from sourcing the candidates to managing the payroll, and keeping updates of HR roles.

If you have any doubts, I will try my best to clarify them. I will send you some formats, just provide me with your email id.

Take care. Goodbye, all the best for your growth.